| Author | Content |
| serenity4 Grabill, IN Zone 5b February 4, 2007 | I am painting interior of house this winter. I wondered if it is possible to tone down the tans and beiges in our fireplace. Can a person White Wash the brick? I don't like the colors of the brick. Came with the house 25 years ago. We also have a black Lopi fireplace. We don't use it to heat the house anymore. Can a person change the color of the black fireplace ? I would like to lighten the fireplace and the brick wall. Thanks. |
| ecrane3 Dublin, CA Zone 9a February 5, 2007 | I painted the brick on the fireplace at my old house. It's very porous though so I had to use about 3 coats of primer and then 3-4 coats of paint on top of that, so it was quite a lot of work (my bricks were dark red though, so yours might not be quite as hard). And it's not something that can be taken off, so make sure you really really want it! Also, I don't know if you're planning to sell the house anytime in the near future, but a lot of people aren't fans of painted brick so it could hurt you there. I don't know about painting the black part of the fireplace, if it's even possible it would require a special sort of paint that can stand up to high temperatures without chipping/cracking or scorching/burning and I don't know if there are paints like that which are readily available. But there's a reason fireplaces are usually black--a lighter colored fireplace is going to get filthy looking really quickly and soot is not the easiest thing to clean off, so if I were you I would leave the black part of the fireplace alone and just paint the brick if you decide that's the look you want. Personally though, I think it might not be bad to leave the bricks alone too, if they were the dark red bricks I could see needing to tone them down, but tans/browns go with pretty much any color scheme and given the irreversibility of painting the bricks, I would probably leave them alone rather than doing something that you'll want to undo in a few years when you change your design & colors again. |
| serenity4 Grabill, IN Zone 5b February 5, 2007 | Thanks for answering me again. (The concrete garage lady) I will take your advice on painting the fireplace but I am not that thrilled with the brick colors. I guess they are neutral. Beige, tan, and black. We put fieldstone on the front of our house probably 7-10 years ago and it has pinks, greys, and a little black. I really like the stone on the front of our house. Just don't feel the brick is the colors I care for. I am doing alot of painting in our house and felt I wanted to do something with the fireplace brick. |
| ecrane3 Dublin, CA Zone 9a February 5, 2007 | Would you consider refacing it with stone veneer instead? Then you could make it look more like the colors of the stone on the front of your house. It's not as cheap as paint obviously, but it would look much nicer than painted bricks would. |
| serenity4 Grabill, IN Zone 5b February 5, 2007 | Thanks for the idea. Will consider. |
| claypa West Pottsgrove, PA Zone 6b February 5, 2007 | Not sure if your Lopi is an insert fireplace or a woodstove, but there is paint made for woodstoves and fireplaces that will take the high temperatures. I forget the brand, it begins with an 'F', it should come up if you search for 'paint woodstove'. |
| serenity4 Grabill, IN Zone 5b February 5, 2007 | The lopi is a fireplace insert. I appreciate your input. Thanks. |
| ghia_girl Wichita, KS Zone 6a April 14, 2007 | This post might be late, I wanted to share what a white wash fireplace looks like. The original brick was dark gray with a few red bricks mixed in. I used two colors, tan and red. Just brushed it on trying not to completely cover the bricks, just give a washed look.
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| ghia_girl Wichita, KS Zone 6a April 14, 2007 | These are the two colors I used, they were used on the wall before using them on the fireplace.
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| ghia_girl Wichita, KS Zone 6a April 14, 2007 | Here is a close up to show the detail on the brick. Sorry I do not have any before pictures.
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| greenlawn Albany, GA Zone 8b May 17, 2007 | dont know if you have gotten your fireplace all fixed up yet. but another option is tile. we had some ugly pale yellow paint over brick.nasty! we tried to get the paint off but didnt like how that looked. but taking the paint off wasnt for nothing because it would have had to be done to install the tile. we really like how it has tuned out. it wasnt as cheap as paint though. but there are a lot of options. best of luck with whatever you decide to do. |
| zion_lover delhi (in) July 20, 2007 | I painted whole of my house myself and when I came to firewall place, it was most difficult part I experienced. It was very hard for me to paint it because I was not knowing that so I just searched this on internet n i'll got an easy solution. Just wait i'll post pics see them and decide. Cheers. |
| bluepaintman Schaumburg, IL November 11, 2007 | There are before and after pictures and information about brick refinishing at the site listed below. I couldn't believe how the appearance of the fireplace bricks changed. Here's the link. Have a great day. [HYPERLINK@braxdecorating.com] |
